Thursday, 31 March 2011

Got few of my "Great Producer" mixes coming up over the next few months, but were moving back in time for the others, so this is the last for a while from recent times.

Andre Harris and Vidal Davis came out of Jazzy Jeff's A Touch of Jazz production team in Philly, and went on to form thier own production company.

For all the pop/rnb tunes this pair have produced, they must take some credit for bringing the soul back into R&B in the early Noughties, heralding the appreciation of organic sounds that were incorporated into the Neo-Soul movement.

Evidence:

Their work on Glenn Lewis first Lp.
Their work on Musiq Soulchild's first LP.
Jill Scott.

Seminal work for Bilal, Mary J Blige, Anthony Hamilton and more.

The duo's trademark recording style - adding live instrumentation over infectious rhythm sections - has helped bring the soul back, something we lost towards the end of the decade when things got a little more programmed. Of course, it helped that they came from Philly, the home of Jazzy jeff, The Roots, Jill Scott, Jaguar Wright, and thier hero's Gamble and Huff.

They became part of the production team at A Touch Of Jazz, producing cuts on Kenny Lattimore's critically acclaimed 1998 album From the Soul of Man. Soon after they left to form their own production company and the following tunes follwed soon after.

Underestimated, In my opinion, for their contribution to bringing the soul back to popular music, they deserve thier place on my great producers list.

Monday, 28 March 2011

Back to the future for volume 6 of the new funk. Ten more tunes that more than tip their hat to their 60's and 70's heavy funk mentors.

Features- James Taylor Quartets hammond sound makes his 1st visit to one of my mixes with a Gil Scot cover (surprising as I've seen him live a few times), The Big Cheese Allstars, veteran jazz-funk drummer Bernard Purdie teams up with the Sugarman3 and Uptown Funk Empire cover a Pharoh Saunders jazz anthem.

Friday, 25 March 2011

Quick after last weeks session of new material comes the next corking instalment.

Miles Bonny - Hes the cover star. If your thinking hes some kind of rocker, you need to take a listen. Hes produced some great solo work (See previous Street Sounds) as well as collabo's with people like Reggie B. The man needs some exposure!!

Reggie B actually features here as well, indeed, the focus is on new artists on this mix like Summer Williams and a candidate for tune of the year by a girl group called King who are newly signed to Phonte/Questlove's new label. And thats without the great "Little Brother" sounding tune from Big Pooh!!

Then there's the Cherry on top, from Reel People whose new LP "Golden Lady" is out next week I believe. An absolutely corking tune feat. vocals from Tony Mormelle, you need to hear it.

Monday, 21 March 2011

About a year and a half ago I posted a mix of some inspirational Soul and Jazz. Stuff that put some hope in your soul and a smile on your face. Well things aint getting any easier out there so I thought its about time for the next installment.

Ten tunes from the crates all with a postive message. Features Build an Ark, Shalamar, Al Johnson and Sheree Brown together with the original 70's cut from Otis Clay of an 90's dance anthem.

Don't forget theres only 2 rules for a good life: 1) Don't sweat the small stuff. 2) It's all small stuff.

Thursday, 17 March 2011

Welcome to the next installment of the Street Sounds series. Future editions contain some quality from Miles Bonny, King, Avery Sunshine, Anthony David and more.

This year hasn't got off to a rollocking start like 2010 did, but there is at least some quality out there.

Kicking off, there is a great version of a Neptunes produced JT tune from Latrelle, U City feat Eric Roberson & Jesse Boykins III (Hows that for talent studded), new blood Terrace Martin (who has a good EP out now BTW), great female vocals from Carlitta Durand and Teedra Moses, and stalwarts like Phonte and Alicia Keys.

Its almost our second birthday, so will have to have a chat with Grizz about posting something special. Ill make sure our Amazon wish list is up for you all to look at. ;)

Friday, 11 March 2011

Thought I would showcase some of the premier Hip Hop producers/DJ's/Beatmakers work with Instrumental versions of some of thier tunes.

Included are work from J Dilla (No introduction needed, and if you do need one, check out the Great Producer mix on him), Nicolay, Hi-Tek, the great 9th Wonder (Isnt it great that both Phonte and him have squashed any beef they had. LITTLE BROTHER reunion maybe???) as well as Icons like Premier and Pete Rock.

If your not a Hip Hop fan, download this, cause you cant deny the soul in these instrumentals. If you dig your Hip Hop, youll know these but will you have the instrumentals to appreciate the beatmakers craft?

Tracklist in comments, Grizz back next week.

**UPDATE** Street Sounds 35 got removed. Ive re=upped it so get it quick folks! SEE BELOW

Tuesday, 8 March 2011

Going through our Tweets on Twitter, saw that Steve Arrington had posted that Mark Adams, bass player extrodinaire of Slave had passed away.

Its no exaggeration to say that Mark was my favorite bass player of all time, even over the likes of my other bass playing heroes such as Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and my current favorite Gene Perez.

Slave would not be the same force without Mark or as proved, without Steve Arrington. Check out Slave's discography, the funkiest band ever IMO, and our sympathies go out to his friends and family.

Monday, 7 March 2011

Volume 20 of my Soul Niceness series! So that's 200 quality rare groove and and hard to find soul tunes from the 70's and 80's that I've posted so far.... (not including the mellow soul or 80's goodies or the Rare Groove specials )! And still plenty to share guys!

In this 20th Niceness mix there's Juggy Jones' version of JR Baileys classic, a Spyder Turner cut from only a few years back but as good as his 70's stuff, a Gene Chandler LP cut and Harvey Mason from the MVP album which I fondly remember picking up on import in the early 80's from a specialist shop in Walthamstow!

Friday, 4 March 2011

OK, so Slakah freatured on our top 10 LP list last year, was no.1 on the list the previous year, and is the main man on this mix. Why? Well, basically, the EP from last year has had 4 extra tunes added to it to make an LP. And one of the extra tunes is highlighted on this mix. Additionally, he has produced an excellent tune for Melanie Durrant called "Loved" that also features.

Brandy also features twice on here, once with a new tune and once with a Timbaland Collabo. Other highlights are a great Bilal remix for people that didnt dig his last LP and prefered his previous work....as well as great new artists like Alain Clarke, Stac and Jae Franklin.